03-03-2014

Grocery Store Gift Card Giveaway (WINNER UPDATE)

*Winner Update*

I was impressed with all the different and delish sounding ways ya’ll cook pork! I never realized how boring my pork dishes were till I started reading the entries.

The winner, chosen at random, is Lee with “I prepare pork loin in the crockpot. I combine 1 can of whole cranberry sauce, 1Tbsp. of Dijon mustard, 1/2 onion, chopped, 1 Tbsp. of brown sugar and a splash of apple cider vinegar. The cranberry compote is wonderful as a “gravy” on mashed potatoes!”

Congratulations Lee! Be on the lookout for an email from me. Thanks to the rest of you for all these wonderful recipe suggestions! I can’t wait to give them a try.

************

As I mentioned the other week, I did not win the Food Lion Frugal Cook-Off but I did have lots of fun! I got to meet a lot of neat bloggers, had a great teammate, and got to experience a Top Chef type challenge.

(my teammate Katie & I)

(our herb crusted pork chop dish)

A new video from the event…https://vimeo.com/87511429

A fun video of Katie & I answering questions while we cooked. As you can tell, they did a great job pairing us together! https://vimeo.com/87436536

Now to the point of this post…Food Lion was very generous in not only sponsoring the event but also providing a $100 gift card for each blogger to share with their readers!

To enter the contest, please share a comment below answering the question…what is your favorite way to cook pork? I will pick the winner next Monday morning.

Good Luck!

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Filed Under: Life, Recipes Tagged With: budget cooking, contest, food, food lion, giveaway, recipes

02-28-2014

the 2 essential skills for preserving food

Read a few pages of any canning book or magazine and there’s a good chance you’ll be pretty afraid of giving your family botulism. While that is definitely possible, the chances of that occurring are pretty slim…if you have the following skills…

1. Being able to follow a recipe’s direction
There is a science behind the preservation of food and canning recipes from reputable sources have been developed & formulated that follow specific rules for safety. So as long as you can follow directions, you will be able to pull this off. I promise! If you are just starting into the world of canning, I highly recommend Ball’s Blue Book. This is your staple, go to book for the mechanics behind canning. From there, the number of books and resources for canning is limitless. You just want to make sure that your recipes are from a reliable entity and align with what you’d find in a Ball Blue Book.

For example, when you have someone telling you that tomatoes don’t need to be processed (meaning no water bath, no pressure canning)…then I’d highly recommend avoiding that recipe. But if you follow the standard rules of sterilizing your jars, preparing your produce the correct way, and processing for the recommended time…then you should feel that you can do this! Which leads me to…

2. Confidence
If you didn’t grow up watching your mom & grandma ‘put-up’ then I understand how you’d be a bit worried if you can pull off preserving your own food. There are plenty of horror stories out there…even for experienced canners, things sometimes go wrong. But it’s just like riding a bike, or the train chugging up the mountain…the mantra of “I think I can, I think I can” …goes a long way. Believe in yourself & your abilities, believe in your desire to feed your family nutritious food, believe in wanting to use up the figs from your in-law’s overflowing tree, believe in wanting to save your family money… There are so many different reasons for wanting to ‘put-up’, and you just have to take the first step.

Start simple, read your recipe numerous times before you begin, and believe in yourself!

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Filed Under: Canning Tagged With: ball blue book, canning, food, homesteading, preserving food, putting up, recipes

02-26-2014

A Fresh Design & A New Business

Welcome to a whole new design for this site, a new web address (I lost ‘wordpress’ and added ‘the’), and a NEW BUSINESS!

I am thrilled with the new design and have to sing the praises of Jana from Little Web Writing Hood who was great to work with!

And for my first foray into the entrepreneurial world…I am starting a business where I teach people how to can & preserve food. I greatly enjoy the aspect of taking something that either I’ve grown or is from a local farm and getting to turn that into something that will last me for months. There is nothing like making spaghetti sauce in February with tomatoes that you canned last summer. If you’ve never tried canning before, I promise it is doable.

After years of fielding questions on canning, I’ve decided to offer canning parties where in the comfort of your home you & your friends get a hands on experience of ‘putting up’ food. In a festive environment you will be gaining an essential life skill and you’ll leave with at least 2 jars of canned goods.

Canning is not rocket science, but unless you’ve grown up doing it or watching your mom do it…you probably feel a bit nervous and worried about giving your family botulism! So, I’m here to unwrap the science of it. To help you feel confident that this is something you can do at home on your own. I am going to begin with offerings of “Pickles & Preserves” and “Canning Tomatoes” parties. And if there is a different produce you’d like to put-up, I can show you how do that too. Take a look at my Canning Parties page and if you have questions or would like pricing you can email me at thelocalgoodness@yahoo.com.

I’m excited!!

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Filed Under: Canning, Life, Recipes Tagged With: canning, food, parties, preserves, summer

02-22-2014

Food Lion Frugal Cook-Off Update

This week was filled with many ups & downs but the high light was Food Lion’s Frugal Cook-Off.

(I’m the one in glasses, Katie’s on the far left)

Imagine Top Chef where the contestants have $15 and 45 minutes to prepare a meal consisting of a protein and two sides. But….you have no idea what your meat is and the mock store is very limited. I had been a bit apprehensive about what our meat would be and we lucked up with pork chops. As you may recall, cooking pork chops is not my specialty! My teammate & I did not win…but we had such a FUN time! And I learned quite a lot.

1. I cannot imagine how many cameras, video recorders, and other equipment there must be for TV cook-offs because just for this cook-off there were SO many! I walked in and felt like I was on a TV set. Here’s a fun teaser video of us all: https://vimeo.com/87181067

2. Knowing that pork should be pulled out of the oven at 138 degrees is only helpful if you actually check the meat’s temperature. Our pork chops were an astonishing 199 degrees!!!! when I checked. Wow. And even after finding out they were that overcooked I still tried to convince my wonderful teammate Katie that we should broil them to achieve a nice crispy exterior. Thankfully, a cooking pro from the store came over and hinted that perhaps we should just plate at that point.

3. Plating your food is WAY harder when you are on a time crunch. When I plate food for blog pics, I can take all the time in the world. No one is yelling out 2 minutes 1 second remaining. And, I had no idea that you should think about how things are going to look plated when you are determining what to buy in the mock-up store. I mean, yes…I had thought the roasted carrots on our plate would add some nice color contrast to the sauteed spinach…but, our plate wasn’t quite as exquisite as what I had pictured in the beginning.

4. 45 minutes goes by WAY faster when you are under a time limit than when you are leisurely cooking at home. And, does anyone know how to get roasted vegetables to brown if you are using a sil-pat pan?

With all that said, I had the most wonderful time and the real reason behind that was meeting this fantastic group of bloggers. It was so nice to meet people face to face and learn about blogs that I had no idea existed. And my teammate Katie from The Perks was an absolute gem. I found someone in Charleston that composts!!! And she gardens (obviously…there is probably a good chance if you compost, you probably garden as well). The video team actually thought we were friends prior to the cook-off because of how much fun we were having together. I think I could write a post simply on how much fun it was hanging out with her.

You should check her and all the other lovely ladies out at the following blogs:

· Megan Baker – Fried Green Pickles http://friedgreenpickles.blogspot.com/

· Brittany Greer – Counting my Cupcakes http://www.countingmycupcakes.com/

· Lisa Caplinger – Charleston Treasures http://www.charlestontreasures.net/

· Valerie Kirkland – LiveFit Journey http://www.livefitjourney.com/

· Sydney Gallimore – Queen of the Food Age http://queenofthefoodage.com/

· Katie Perkinson – The Perks http://katiesperk.blogspot.com

· Shelby Hanchey – Recent Somethings http://recentsomethings.blogspot.com

I will be back next week with a give away, recipes, and shout-outs to Food Lion and Charleston Cooks!. This post has already gotten so long. Food Lion so generously put together the cook-off and I want to share information with you that I learned about their store. They are making great strides in improving their quality of produce and store brand groceries. I was very impressed. And Charleston Cooks! hosted the event and CLEANED UP ALL OUR DIRTY DISHES!!! We had lots.

Thanks for reading this very long post and if you have a tip for roasting veggies with a sil-pat, I’d love to know your tricks.

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Filed Under: Life, Recipes Tagged With: budget dinners, charleston, cook off challenge, food

02-07-2014

Food Lion Frugal Cook-Off

UPDATE: I just found out that the cook-off is not open to the public due to space of the venue. So please just cheer me on virtually instead!

For the last month I have felt my world spinning faster than I would like and while I yearn for less matter to fill my brain, I realize that sometimes there are simply busy seasons in our lives.

Between a bathroom remodeling project that we are DIYing, launching a small business (yay! more details coming soon), and redesigning this blog (yay, again!) I feel that my somewhat orderly life is stretching me to the max. Life is a bit chaotic in its design but I try to keep things simple and focus on domestic and mom duties as my priorities. So these extra-curricular projects are throwing me for a loop.

What’s really kept me grounded though has been waking up around 5ish to have quiet time with Christ. I treasure those minutes, that hour, before my children wake. Time to have a mug of hot tea, envelope myself in scripture, and journal my prayers to Him. My time with Him renews me, encourages me, and reminds me to seek His guidance throughout the day.

So what’s a girl to do when a friend & fellow blogger sends her an email about a food cook-off? And not just any food cook-off but a FRUGAL food cook-off! She excitedly requests to be included! And then she prays about it. And then she feels bad that she didn’t seek God’s guidance first to see if she should be signing up. And then she realizes that, in all things, God can bring goodness…bring Him glory. So she tries to remind herself that God gave her passions and enthusiasms in life for a reason. It’s a really nice gift when you’re given the opportunity to do something you love…so perhaps she should just cherish this fun & exciting event!

So to the point of this post….

I am thrilled to be one of the contestants in Charleston’s Food Lion Frugal Cook-Off on 19 February. As any close friend of mine knows, I love food more than almost anything. Really. I have to work really hard on having conversations that do not revolve around food. And, I LOVE TO SAVE $. My favorite conversations sans food include me saying…”guess how much I just saved!” So this cook-off should be really neat. And challenging. And scary. I mean, do I really know how to cook good food without an arsenal of spices at the ready? What do I do if they hand me a pork tenderloin? (I don’t know that I’ve ever made a tender tenderloin…ever…not once!)

Oh, and did I mention that just by participating I will get a $100 gift certificate to share with one of you! And if I win, then the gift certificate becomes $250!

I’ll be back in touch after the event to let you know how it goes!

Jess

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Filed Under: Confessions, Faith, Recipes Tagged With: budget, charleston, food, God, local, recipes

01-27-2014

What a garden in January really looks like!

I often have friends ask me to help them start a small backyard garden. Which excites me to no end, because I think everyone should be digging in their dirt more often. But sometimes I wonder…do people have the correct expectations of what a garden looks like in their yard. Sure, in mid summer that space is going to look gorgeous with vibrant green foliage, yellow blossoms of squash, and red tommytoes (there really are tiny tomatoes called this!) on the vine… all just ready to be picked.

But come January, that luscious garden is another story. There is a good chance (if you are anything like me) that back in September you left the garden to take care of itself. And it certainly has! The lettuce box is falling apart, showing signs that it really is on its last leg and will not produce any more bumper crops of greens.

And there are the not so small amount of weeds that have overtaken one garden plot.

So if you have your heart set on starting a garden this year….GO YOU!!!! Just be prepared that it does take work in the fall to avoid a garden that looks like mine currently does!

But despite the work required to maintain a garden, everyone should do it. Whether it’s growing herbs in containers to tackling an acre or more of just potatoes….you can do it! There are few things as rewarding as taking one tiny seed and turning that into the crop you feed your family.

And once you catch the gardening bug, no matter how bad your other garden plots look, you’ll probably keep adding more garden beds to grow even more tomatoes in! I am so excited we had room to add these two garden plots this year. And because we cut down a ton of trees they will receive great sunlight (hopefully, fingers crossed)!

I hope your garden looks more beautiful than mine right now!

Jess

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Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: agriculture, gardening, vegetables, victory garden

01-23-2014

Stretching 1lb of meat over 3 meals

Like most people, I am continually amazed at the cost of feeding my family. As the kids grow they seem to constantly be eating and I feel like I live at the grocery store.

Last week I was ecstatic when I was able to stretch 1 lb of stew meat over 2 dinners and 1 lunch for 2 adults & 2 kids. Our first dinner was nachos, our lunch was tacos, and our second dinner was quesadillas served with Mexican potatoes. The key to doing this is to make your vegetables and starch be the featured ingredients instead of the meat. By loading the nachos and quesadillas with bell peppers, onions, lettuce, cheese, and avocado it was really easy to not use as much meat.

For comparison purposes, I cooked another pound of stew meat this week but instead of stretching it, I made a typical meat, starch, and veggie meal. When I did that there was only enough meat for 1 meal.

By cooking the stew meat in a crockpot, it was also super simple to make. I tossed the meat with Mexican spices, drizzed on some honey, and then when the meat was tender I added in a can of diced tomatoes with peppers to give it a little kick.

If you are thinking your children don’t want to eat spicy food then, cook the meat with the spicy spices but before adding the tomatoes, pull out the meat for your children and rinse very well with water. My kids refuse to eat anything that isn’t plain tasting but they loved this meat after the spices had been rinsed off. If you try to cook the meat without the seasoning spices, the meat won’t taste anywhere near the same as having cooked for hours with spices rubbed on them initially.

CrockPot Mexican Stew Meat

1 lb of stew meat
2 tsp each:
-dried oregano
-dried cilantro
-adobo seasoning
-chili powder
-garlic powder
-ground cumin
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup honey
1 15.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with chili’s

Toss stew meat with all herbs, spices, and honey. Place in crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Test meat at 4 hours to determine how much more time is needed to avoid it drying out. Once meat is tender, add diced tomatoes and cook for another 30 minutes, until mixture is warmed through.

*These spices are all optional/customizable. If you don’t like one of them or don’t have something on hand, such as adobo seasoning, don’t worry about it. This is a very make as you like recipe.

Enjoy!

Jessica

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: beef, budget dinners, food, frugal meals, mexican recipes, stew meat, tacos

01-08-2014

Playtime in the snow

After enjoying homemade hot cocoa & popcorn yesterday, the kids had a bawl playing in the snow! Shaving cream snow that is!

I often use shaving cream for sensory play…learning to write our letters, teaching the colors of the rainbow, and best of all…shaving cream fights in the tub! But I’d never thought to use it as pretend snow until Stella’s very creative preschool teacher used it this week to entertain while it’s been so cold outside.

So yesterday I set up an idyllic play scene and let ’em go to town on it. SO MUCH FUN!

The best thing about shaving cream is that it really isn’t that difficult to clean up. I did use a ton of paper towels to wipe it up, so that wasn’t good for the environment. But once you wipe it all up then the rest comes clean with a wet cloth. And since they just used toy figurines and matchbox cars, the cleanup of those was simple as well.

So if you don’t have any magical snow glistening in your front yard, go out and get some shaving cream!

~ Jess

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Filed Under: Crafts, Family Tagged With: activities, crafts, kids, montessori, playtime, sensory play, winter

01-07-2014

Homemade Popcorn & Hot Cocoa

There’s a blustery frigid wind outside our house today. Makes me thankful for a snug home, warm mittens, and coats for my kids.

But I must tell the truth…my definition of cold is anything below 40 degrees. So waking up to a whopping 19 degrees…that’s cold for me! I should feel bad thinking this is cold when so many of you are dealing with subzero temps right now. But I’m just a warm weather girl, and apparently so are the school district officials here. We are on a 2 hour delay right now because it feels like 6 degrees outside. Seems pretty chilly to me if I were sending my 5 year old out to wait for the bus. But I’m sure if you woke to 0 degree temps, you’d gladly take 19 right now!

During the last cold snap, the kids and I spent a perfect afternoon indoors making homemade popcorn and hot cocoa. Is there anything more enjoyable on a cold winter day?

Alton Brown makes perfect homemade popcorn. His secret is making a tinfoil lid with slits for the steam to escape. After numerous attempts that failed every time, I was thrilled when I came across his recipe.

Hot cocoa is so easy to make at home and once you try it, you’ll wonder why you’ve ever used the instant stuff. There really is no comparison for homemade hot chocolate. And all you need to do is follow the directions on the back of the cocoa box.

Trick of the trade…if you are making an individual serving in the microwave…mix the cocoa & sugar in bottom of mug and then pour just a tad (a few tbsp) of milk into the mug. Stir this mixture really well so that it’s completely mixed prior to pouring the remaining milk in. It isn’t pretty when you try to mix the cocoa & sugar in with a full glass of milk…trust me!

I hope you & yours stay warm and dry! And if you have snow…lucky you! With weather this cold it should be white outside.

~ Jess

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: alton brown, comfort food, Hot cocoa, snow, winter

10-16-2013

A Canning Party

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes…Is there anything as glorious as homegrown tomatoes?

Back in August when the tomato vines were so heavily laden with ripening fruit I hosted a canning party. It was fun, glorious, and wonderful. And I passed on canning knowledge to 3 more people. I think my grandma’s would have been proud.

I enjoy the process of canning and producing a tangible something. There is nothing like making spaghetti sauce, taco dip, or some shrimp scampi with your very own canned tomatoes. And I want to pass this enjoyment on to others. I want people to realize that canning and preserving isn’t as hard as you think it is. That it IS doable.

Take Lindsey (on the right) for example…I taught her how to pickle okra last summer and then last month she had a party and showed her daughter’s teacher how to pickle okra. I think that is so cool! We have to spread the wealth of knowledge that we have in our heads. My grandmothers, mom, sister-in-law…they shared it with me and now I’m simply passing it on.

SO GO CAN!!! And if you ever have a canning question or just need canning encouragement…let me know. I’m here to help.

Love,